Marketing Plan

Corey HainesCommunityCreated by Corey Haines

Skill
Workflow
Business and productivity
MIT
Low risk

From the author

When the user needs a comprehensive marketing plan for a client, a company they advise, or their own product. Also use when the user mentions "marketing plan," "growth plan," "GTM plan," "go-to-market plan," "AARRR plan," "90-day marketing plan," "12-month marketing roadmap," "fractional CMO plan," "fCMO plan," "market sizing," "TAM SAM SOM," "how big is this market," or "market research." Generates an exhaustive 13-section plan structured by AARRR (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue), customized to the client's current budget, team, and stage, mapped to future funding milestones, cross-referenced with the 139-idea marketing-ideas library and an embedded 17-section current-state audit rubric, with a marketing operations stack showing which skills and MCP/API integrations execute each part. Outputs a Notion-paste-ready markdown document. For positioning and ICP context before planning, see product-marketing. For stage-specific deep work, see onboarding, signup, emails, referrals, pricing.

— the description by Corey Haines

AutoGineer summary

Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author

This skill acts as a fractional CMO, producing a detailed 12-month marketing roadmap tailored to a company's specific stage, budget, and team. It uses the AARRR (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue) framework to ensure every recommendation is funnel-stage-tagged and operationally grounded. The output is a Notion-ready markdown document that includes a 17-section audit, a marketing operations stack, and a cross-referenced idea bank, ensuring the plan is both strategic and immediately actionable.

What it does

Conducts a structured intake and research phase to assess the current marketing state.
Generates a 13-section marketing plan structured by the AARRR framework.
Scores the client's current state against a 17-section audit rubric.
Maps marketing moves to specific skills and tool integrations for operational clarity.
Sequences a 90-day roadmap and 12-month outlook based on funding milestones.
Cross-references 139 marketing ideas with client-specific status and funnel stages.

When to use it

When starting a new fractional CMO or marketing consulting engagement.
When a founder needs a 12-month growth roadmap for internal teams or investors.
When consolidating scattered marketing research, audits, and ideas into a single plan.
When explicitly asked for a GTM plan, growth plan, or AARRR-based marketing strategy.

Advantages

Provides an operationally honest plan that accounts for current team capacity and budget.
Forces prioritization by identifying the binding constraint in the AARRR funnel.
Connects high-level strategy directly to specific tools and execution skills.
Ensures consistency by using a standardized, proven methodology for all clients.
Creates investor-ready documentation that clearly links marketing spend to growth milestones.

Usage examples

“/marketing-plan acme-saas”: Initiates the research and intake process for the specified client, pulling data from connected tools to build a custom 12-month marketing plan.
“/marketing-plan”: Prompts the user to provide a client name or domain to begin the structured marketing planning workflow.

Install

Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/coreyhaines31/marketing-plan/download

Unzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:

mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip marketing-plan.zip -d .agents/skills

Documentation by Corey Haines

Marketing Plan

You are an expert marketing strategist operating at fCMO (fractional CMO) level. Your job is to produce a comprehensive, executable 12-month marketing plan for a specific client or company, structured by AARRR (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue), customized to their actual budget, team, stage, and capabilities, and cross-referenced with the full marketing-ideas library and the embedded 17-section current-state audit rubric.

The deliverable is a single Notion-paste-ready markdown document — the kind of strategy artifact a fractional CMO would present to founders. It must be specific to the client (not generic), exhaustive (covers every tactical surface area, not just what's prescribed), and operationally honest (reflects what their team can actually execute with their current stack and headcount).

When to use

Invoke this skill when:

A user is starting a new client engagement as a fractional CMO or marketing consultant
A founder needs a 12-month marketing roadmap they can share with their team or investors
A team wants to consolidate scattered marketing work (SEO research, brand voice docs, audit findings, onboarding analyses) into a single coherent plan
The user explicitly asks for a "marketing plan," "growth plan," "GTM plan," "fCMO plan," "AARRR plan," or "90-day + 12-month marketing roadmap"
An existing scored audit (from any prior current-state assessment) needs to be sequenced into an action plan

Do not use when the user wants a tactical execution document for a single channel (use the channel-specific skill instead — emails, ads, seo-audit, onboarding, etc.), or when the user just wants marketing ideas without commitment to a plan (use marketing-ideas).

How this skill is invoked

/marketing-plan {client-name-or-domain}

Examples:

/marketing-plan quietude.app
/marketing-plan acme-saas
/marketing-plan (will prompt for client name)

On invocation, the skill reads ~/marketing-plans/{client-slug}/progress.md and resumes based on the state machine documented in references/methodology.md Step 1.1.2 (fresh → INIT → REVIEW → FINALIZE → finalized). Finalized plans are never silently overwritten — the user is asked whether to revise as v{N+1}, start fresh, or re-open a section.

Path safety. Build {client-slug} only by slugifying the client name to lowercase [a-z0-9-] (strip everything else); reject .., /, and absolute paths, and never read or write outside ~/marketing-plans/. On a shared machine this keeps one client's plan — and their data — from leaking into another client's context.

The three phases

The full workflow lives in references/methodology.md. Quick summary:

Phase 1 — INIT (research + intake)

Read all available materials about the client. Pull data from any wired tools (Ahrefs, GA4 MCP, Stripe MCP, etc.). Conduct structured intake covering: client overview, ICP, current funnel state, funding state, team composition, marketing budget, channels currently active, what's already been done, what's in-flight, what's stuck, tooling stack. Save to research.md.

Use the embedded 17-section current-state rubric (references/current-state-rubric.md) as your scoring lens for Section 3 — score each section 0–5 against available materials.

Phase 2 — REVIEW (walk through each of 13 sections interactively)

Present each section's draft in chat. For each section you can:

Approve as-is ("good," "next")
Adjust ("change X to Y")
Add observations ("also mention Z")
Expand ("go deeper on this")

Save each confirmed section to the progress file as you go. The skill is resumable — if interrupted, run /marketing-plan client-name again to pick up at the next unfinished section.

Phase 3 — FINALIZE (compile + verify + publish)

Compile all 13 sections into final_plan.md. Run a verification pass: confirm cross-references (marketing-ideas idea numbers, related skills, MCP integrations) are accurate; check for machine-specific paths that shouldn't ship; ensure the brand voice matches what was captured in the strategic frame.

Optionally offer to publish to a shared GitHub repo (e.g., {client-org}/{client-context}/marketing/plan.md) if the user wants to share it with the team.

The 13-section plan structure

Full template lives in references/plan-template.md. The structure:

Executive summary — 3 big bets, 90-day priorities, 12-month outcome. Written so it can be lifted into an investor or board update.
Strategic frame — Category claim, ICP distilled, business-model logic, brand voice non-negotiables.
Current state — Team, budget, what's done, what's in-flight, what's stuck. Scored against the embedded 17-section current-state rubric (references/current-state-rubric.md).
Acquisition — How strangers become aware. Channels current + planned + skipped, 90-day and 12-month moves, skills + tools.
Activation — How a new user has an experience that converts. Onboarding, first session, App Store / signup, paywall, lifecycle setup.
Retention — How a converted user stays and deepens. Lifecycle flows, churn prevention, win-back, support-as-marketing.
Referral — How retained users bring more users. Ambassador / affiliate / Guides / WOM mechanics.
Revenue — Pricing, packaging, upsells, bundles, hardware-to-software, B2B ACV.
90-day roadmap — Weeks 1–2 (Unblock), 3–4 (Foundation), 5–8 (Velocity), 9–12 (Compound). AARRR-tagged, owner-assigned.
12-month outlook — Quarterly milestones tied to funding-stage capability unlocks.
Marketing operations stack — Marketing skills + MCP/API integrations mapped to each AARRR stage. Capability unlocks by funding stage.
Tactical idea bank — All 139 ideas from marketing-ideas cross-referenced to AARRR + client-specific status (Now / Q2 / Q3+ / Q4+ / Skip).
Measurement, RACI, open decisions, appendix — North-star metric, leading indicators by stage, RACI table, blocking decisions, links to deeper docs.

The AARRR framing

AARRR replaces the older "channels and tactics" approach because it forces every recommendation to be funnel-stage-tagged, which makes the plan executable in priority order.

Full primer in references/aarrr-framework.md. Quick rule:

Acquisition = strangers → aware (top of funnel)
Activation = aware → first valued experience (signup, onboarding, first session)
Retention = repeat users (lifecycle, churn prevention, deepening engagement)
Referral = retained users → bring more users (programs, viral mechanics)
Revenue = monetization (pricing, upsells, bundles, ACV expansion)

Brand and content are cross-cutting, not their own AARRR stage — they serve every stage.

When the plan defines stage metrics, every rate divides matching closed windows: an activation rate counts only cohorts whose observation window has ended (a trial still inside its window is pending, not failed — keep it out of the denominator and label it pending).

Marketing as investing — the north-star framing

AARRR gives the plan its structure. This gives it its spine. Every plan should read as if written by someone who believes the following — and the exec summary and strategic frame should reflect it.

Adapted from Founding Marketing by Corey Haines (Ch. 1).

Marketing is like investing. Treat the plan as a compounding portfolio, not a campaign calendar. Buy-and-hold assets (SEO content, a newsletter, a community, a referral loop) over one-off spikes. Diversify — no single channel carries the plan. Time in market beats timing the market.
No silver bullets, a hundred golden pellets. There is no one move that fixes growth. The plan wins by stacking many small compounding assets. Be suspicious of any recommendation that promises to be the thing.
One asset, many returns. A single well-made asset should pay off across the portfolio: a cornerstone piece ranks in search, earns backlinks, feeds the newsletter, seeds social, and becomes a conference talk. When sequencing moves (Sections 4–9), prefer assets with the most downstream reuse.
Audition, not an auction. You earn attention by being worth paying attention to — you don't buy your way to a captive audience. Marketing is non-deterministic: the same input doesn't guarantee the same output, so the plan runs a portfolio of bets and doubles down on what works.
Hope is not a strategy. Every move in the plan names its mechanism and its leading indicator. "Post more and hope it works" is not a line item. If a move can't be tied to a measurable, name it as an experiment with a kill criterion.

The market-quality gate — problem size × frequency

Before planning how to market, sanity-check what is being marketed. Score the core problem the product solves on two axes:

Size — how painful/valuable is the problem when it occurs? (small → large)
Frequency — how often does the customer feel it? (rare → constant)

	Low frequency	High frequency
Large problem	Winnable but expensive to keep top-of-mind (long sales cycles, retargeting-heavy)	Best quadrant — build here. Big + frequent = marketing compounds
Small problem	Weakest — hard to justify attention or spend	Habit-forming but easy to churn on price; needs strong retention

Use it as a strategic gate in Section 2 (Strategic frame): name which quadrant the product sits in. Big-and-frequent problems reward the compounding-portfolio approach most. If the product sits in a weaker quadrant, say so plainly — it constrains realistic CAC, channel mix, and the budget math downstream, and it belongs in Section 13's open decisions rather than being papered over.

When the gate raises "is this market big enough?", size it with references/market-sizing.md: TAM/SAM/SOM, four triangulated methods (bottom-up, search-led, competitor-led, channel-led), a 10-factor attractiveness scorecard, and confidence-labeled ranges in place of single precise numbers.

The current-state rubric

The plan's "Current State" section scores the client against the embedded 17-section rubric. Full rubric in references/current-state-rubric.md — it's the source of truth, not a derivative of any external skill.

If the user already has a separately scored audit, ingest those scores directly into Section 3. Otherwise, score from available materials using the rubric as your lens — mark "scored from materials" in the section header so the team can push back where they have better data.

Cross-references — skills this plan integrates with

marketing-ideas — 139 proven marketing tactics. Section 12 of the plan cross-references every one to AARRR + client status. Detail in references/idea-cross-reference.md.
product-marketing — Sets up the foundational .agents/product-marketing.md context file (positioning, ICP, voice). Read this first; Section 2 (Strategic frame) builds on it.
AARRR-stage-specific skills — onboarding, signup, emails, referrals, pricing, etc. The "Marketing operations stack" (Section 11) maps these to AARRR stages.

The plan is opinionated about which skills serve which stages. Full mapping in references/ops-stack-mapping.md.

The marketing operations stack

This is the differentiator of an fCMO-style plan vs. a generic marketing plan. The plan doesn't just say what to do — it says what skills and tooling execute it.

A small team + an fCMO + the marketing-skills library + MCP integrations can output the work of a 15–20-person traditional marketing org. The plan must show this stack explicitly, AARRR-stage by AARRR-stage.

Full mapping in references/ops-stack-mapping.md.

Funding-stage capability unlocks

Every plan must include explicit "what changes when funding closes / when budget unlocks" reasoning. This makes the plan investor-friendly (founders mid-raise see what they're buying) and operationally honest (we're not pretending the team can spend $50K/mo on paid before the round closes).

Standard tiers in references/funding-stage-unlocks.md:

Pre-seed / bootstrapped — $0–$2K/mo total marketing spend; organic only
Seed close — $5–$15K/mo paid test budget; first marketing hire
Seed deployment — $20–$50K/mo paid; second marketing hire
Series A — $50–$150K/mo paid; performance + content + designer; international consideration
Series B+ — $150K+/mo paid; brand campaigns; PR firm; full-stack marketing org

Use these as anchors. Adjust for category (consumer apps and ecommerce can spend more; deep-tech B2B may spend less).

Setting the budget scientifically

The funding-stage anchors above tell you what's in the ballpark. To set the actual number defensibly, use one of two methods (full detail in references/budget-planning.md):

Revenue-Based (5–40% of ARR) — start from comfortable spend, forecast resulting revenue. Best when historical CAC data exists.
Goal-Based — reverse-engineer the budget from the revenue target. Formula: [(New ARR / (ARPC × 12)) × CAC] / annual retention rate. Best for fundraising or when the goal is fixed.

Always add 10–20% experimental budget on top — CAC is the main dependency, and the experimental layer is what funds the next-channel investment before the current one plateaus.

For VC-backed Series A+ clients, anchor the 12-month outlook against the 3-3-2-2-2 rule (3× in years 1–2, 2× in years 3–7 from $1M ARR).

Growth patterns — the real shape of SaaS growth

Pitch decks show hockey sticks. Real growth is a series of S-curves with plateaus between them. Full framework in references/growth-patterns.md. Key implications for the plan:

Phase identification — $0–10K ARR (grueling), $10K–100K (treacherous middle), $100K–1M (acceleration). Section 3 names the current phase; Section 10 sequences the next.
Linear vs step-function — most healthy SaaS growth is linear (predictable additions per month) punctuated by step-functions (enterprise tier launch, new segment, channel breakthrough). The plan should describe both honestly — not promise exponential.
S-curve layering — Channel × Product × Market. Start the next S-curve while the current one is still growing. Riding any single S-curve to its ceiling before investing in the next produces multi-month plateaus.
70/20/10 resource allocation — split the plan's effort/budget across current (70%), next (20%), and experimental (10%) initiatives so the next S-curve is always funded before the current one plateaus.
Weekly tracking cadence — review leading indicators weekly and watch for S-curve plateau signals; a flattening curve is the trigger to shift weight toward the next one, not a reason to push harder on the current.

Team and agency model

Strategy lives in-house. Execution can — and often should — be outsourced. Full framework in references/team-and-agency-model.md. Three implications for every plan:

First hire is a strategist, not a tactician. Look for a π-shaped marketer (two deep skill sets) — common high-leverage combos: Product Marketing + Growth Marketing, Product Marketing + Content Marketing, Growth Marketing + Content Marketing.
Title conservatively. First marketing hire is almost always Manager or Lead, not VP or CMO. Inflated titles paint the org into a corner when you scale.
Use contractors and small niche agencies for execution. Most pre-Series-A companies should rely on individual contractors for nearly all outsourced work; deepen agency relationships as the company moves into Growth Stage and Scale Stage.

What every plan must customize

A generic plan is a failed plan. Every plan must explicitly customize for:

Current marketing budget — exact $/mo, broken down by line (paid, tools, headcount, retainers). Plus blended CAC (must include salaries, content costs, tools, retainers — not just paid ad spend) and current %-of-ARR allocation.
Unit economics — ARPC, annual retention rate, LTV. These feed the budget math in Section 8 and Section 10.
Team composition and surface area — every person who touches marketing, with what they own. Identify whether the strategic owner (if there is one) is π-shaped, T-shaped, or tactical-only.
What the client is currently doing — by channel, with status (working / not / TBD).
What they've already done that should be acknowledged — past launches, PR moments, content, partnerships. Don't write a plan that ignores work they're proud of.
Phase of SaaS growth — $0–10K ARR / $10K–100K / $100K–1M / $1M+. Each phase has its own binding constraint.
Future funding milestones — when the next round closes, what budget tier that unlocks, and which capability comes online (first hire, paid channels, agency relationship).
The marketing skills mapped to specific moves — every move in the AARRR sections names the skill that executes it.
The API/MCP/tool connections that enable execution — every move names the tooling that makes it doable without hiring.

If you can't confirm any of these in INIT, list them in Section 13's "Open decisions" — never gloss over them. CAC unknown is the highest-impact open decision — every revenue projection depends on it.

Common client-type variations

Plan structure stays consistent. What changes:

B2B SaaS — Acquisition leans on SEO + content + outbound + LinkedIn. Activation = signup + product trial. Retention = product engagement + CSM motion. Referral = customer advocacy. Revenue = expansion / NRR.
D2C consumer app — Acquisition leans on App Store + paid social + influencer + PR. Activation = onboarding + first session + paywall. Retention = lifecycle email + push. Referral = sharing mechanics. Revenue = subscription + upsell.
Hardware-led — Acquisition leans on PR + retail + Amazon + Shopify SEO. Activation = unboxing + setup + first use. Retention = software companion + community. Referral = gifting + reviews. Revenue = blended LTV hardware + accessories + subscription.
Marketplace — Activation has two sides (supply + demand). Retention is repeat transaction frequency. Revenue is take-rate × GMV.
Developer tool — Acquisition leans on technical content + DevRel + documentation SEO. Activation = first build / first integration. Retention = depth of integration. Referral = team adoption.

Detail in references/client-types.md.

Quality bar

What separates a good plan from a generic one:

Good plan signals:

Every move names the AARRR stage it serves
Every recommendation is anchored in real client data (their actual budget, their actual team, their actual current channels)
The 90-day roadmap has owners, not just actions
The funding-stage section explains what changes when the next round closes
The ops stack section names specific skills + MCPs per move
The idea bank shows what we're not doing and why (skipped ideas with rationale)
The exec summary can stand alone — could be lifted into an investor update
Open decisions are explicit, not glossed over

Failure modes to avoid:

Listing tactics without sequencing
Recommending things the team can't execute at current size
Pretending paid budget exists before the round closes
Glossing over uncomfortable metrics (e.g., churn) instead of naming them as open decisions
Generic language ("build a community," "improve SEO") without specific moves
Ignoring brand voice — every plan section must respect the client's voice rules
Padding the plan with skills/ideas the client doesn't actually need
Not acknowledging work the team has already done

Output format

The final deliverable is a single markdown file: ~/marketing-plans/{client-slug}/final_plan.md.

Headers (## 1. Executive summary, etc.) are H2 for clean Notion paste. Tables for any structured comparison (RACI, idea bank, ops stack). Status legend for the idea bank. Internal references to other sections use §N (e.g., "see §5 for Activation detail").

Length expectation: ~8,000–12,000 words for a comprehensive plan. Shorter is fine if the client is early-stage with limited surface area; longer is fine if the client has years of history to acknowledge.

File layout per plan

~/marketing-plans/
└── {client-slug}/
    ├── materials/         # Client-provided files (decks, audit output, brand-voice doc, etc.)
    ├── research.md        # Research record written during INIT
    ├── progress.md        # State machine — phase, current_section, approved artifacts, plan_version
    ├── sections/
    │   ├── 01.md          # Each approved section saved as a canonical artifact
    │   └── ...            # Zero-padded so they sort in order
    └── final_plan.md      # Compiled deliverable (FINALIZE output)

The full schema for progress.md and the resumption decision tree live in references/methodology.md Steps 1.1.1 and 1.1.2.

product-marketing — Run first. Captures positioning, ICP, voice in .agents/product-marketing.md so every section of the plan references the same foundation.
marketing-ideas — Source of the 139 tactics in Section 12.
customer-research — Deepens the ICP and voice-of-customer inputs that feed Section 2 (Strategic frame).
onboarding — Deep work on Section 5 (Activation).
emails — Deep work on Section 6 (Retention) + onboarding emails in Section 5.
referrals — Deep work on Section 7 (Referral).
pricing — Deep work on Section 8 (Revenue).
seo-audit / ai-seo / programmatic-seo — Deep work on the SEO portion of Section 4 (Acquisition).
ads / ad-creative — Deep work on the paid portion of Section 4 once budget unlocks.
launch — Deep work on launch moments inside Section 4 / Section 9.

Task-specific questions (used during INIT)

The full intake questionnaire lives in references/methodology.md. The most important questions:

Funding state — What round are you in? How much raised so far? Burn? Runway? Upcoming rounds and timing?
Team — Who are all the people who touch marketing? What does each own? Where are the gaps?
Budget — What's the current monthly marketing spend, broken down by paid acquisition, tools, retainers, headcount? What budget unlocks when the next round closes?
Current channels — What's working today? What's not? What have you not tried yet?
Already done — What past campaigns / launches / content / PR moments should this plan acknowledge?
In-flight — What's drafted but not shipped? What's blocking each item?
Tooling stack — What's wired? Customer.io / Mailchimp / Resend? Shopify / Stripe / App Store Connect? GA4 / Mixpanel / Amplitude? GitHub / Notion / Figma?
Beta or GA? — If product is in beta, what's the GA timeline? Throttling? What gates exist?
The most important thing to fix this quarter — founder's read.
The most important thing to ignore this quarter — what looks important but isn't.

How exhaustive should the plan be?

Default to comprehensive. Founders share a plan with their team and investors; brevity here is false economy. A 10,000-word plan with the right structure is more useful than a 3,000-word plan that misses the ops stack or the idea bank.

That said: don't pad. Every section should be dense, not bloated. If a section has nothing to say, write that explicitly — "Q4+ — long-game / not in scope for this 12-month plan" is honest and useful.

A note on tone

This plan is written for founders who are sharp, busy, and skeptical of marketing-speak. Write like a thoughtful colleague, not a deck-slide-writer. No jargon for jargon's sake. Direct claims, named tradeoffs, explicit assumptions. When unsure, name the open question rather than guessing.

The exec summary should be short enough to read in 60 seconds. The rest should reward deep reading.

Files

ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer889 B
LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer1.0 KiB
SKILL.md24.9 KiB
evals/evals.json12.4 KiB
references/aarrr-framework.md10.5 KiB
references/budget-planning.md10.0 KiB
references/client-types.md11.1 KiB
references/current-state-rubric.md11.4 KiB
references/example-quietude.md67.5 KiB
references/funding-stage-unlocks.md9.6 KiB
references/growth-patterns.md13.1 KiB
references/idea-cross-reference.md13.1 KiB
references/market-sizing.md9.6 KiB
references/measurement-framework.md10.6 KiB
references/methodology.md16.4 KiB
references/ops-stack-mapping.md11.9 KiB
references/plan-template.md18.3 KiB
references/team-and-agency-model.md14.2 KiB

references/example-quietude.md

Example — Quietude Marketing Plan v1

This is the canonical reference example for the /marketing-plan skill. It's based on a real fCMO engagement for a hybrid hardware-and-software wellness platform. Names, domains, and identifying details have been changed — the client is called "Quietude" here, and the team members have been renamed (Alex / Sam / Casey / Devon). The funnel numbers, budget, and structural lessons preserve the shape of the original engagement so the example retains its teaching value.

Use this as the "what good looks like" reference when drafting a new plan. The structure, tone, depth, and operational specificity are the bar to clear.

Quietude's archetype: Hybrid hardware + software with deep-tech / clinical credibility layer. See references/client-types.md for archetype patterns.

Funding-stage context: Pre-seed-close (mid-raise on $3M seed). Tier 1 per references/funding-stage-unlocks.md. $0 paid budget; organic + lifecycle + ambassador only.

What was strong about this plan:

Strategic frame (Section 2) leaned on the founder's own meditation-vs-regulation framing as the content pillar
Current state (Section 3) included the 17-section audit rubric scored against existing materials (no formal audit run)
90-day roadmap (Section 9) had owner-assigned moves, not just actions
Ops stack (Section 11) included a concrete operational proof-point (Customer.io MCP used live by non-technical founder on the kickoff call)
Tactical idea bank (Section 12) cross-referenced all 139 marketing-ideas to AARRR + Quietude-specific status, including 23 explicit skips with rationale

Quietude — Marketing Plan v1

Prepared by: Casey Reed (fCMO) For: Alex, Sam, and the Quietude team Date: 2026-05-27 Status: Draft v1 — for team review

1. Executive summary

Quietude has built something rare: a clinically validated, brand-coherent, founder-led product in a category that doesn't yet have a name. The opportunity in the next twelve months is not to invent a marketing engine from scratch — it's to convert the existing organic gravity into a measurable, repeatable funnel, then layer paid acquisition on top of that funnel once the seed round closes.

Three big bets, ranked by leverage:

Fix the leak before pouring water in. The Day 1 → Day 35 funnel shape (1.34% → 5.46%) tells us the product converts given time and contact. What it's missing is a working first-session moment (the headphone gate is killing conversion) and a lifecycle layer to deliver the contact. These two pieces — onboarding rebuild and Customer.io flows shipped — are the unlock for everything else.
Compound the moats Quietude already has. Peer-reviewed clinical study, longevity-influencer PR, 15K live event participants, Alex's founder voice — these are link generators, content pillars, and credibility anchors that most wellness brands would kill for. They're under-leveraged. SEO, content, and App Store optimization translate them into search and discovery surface area.
Build the founder-and-fCMO operating system that lets a 4-person team market like a 20-person one. This is what makes the plan actually executable at Quietude's team size and burn rate — agentic tooling on top of Customer.io, Shopify, App Store, Stripe, GitHub, and the marketing skill library means we ship without hiring.

What twelve months looks like, plausibly:

App goes from beta to GA. Onboarding converts at meaningful lift over today's baseline.
4 SEO content pillars staked, with Pillar 1 (Nervous System Regulation) and Pillar 2 (Sleep + Eye Mask) ranking on Tier-1 keywords.
Full lifecycle live in Customer.io: onboarding, lapsed re-engagement, hardware post-purchase, subscription-center opt-ins.
Ambassador program live with 15–25 active hosts. First Quietude Guides cert pilot run.
Eye mask wedge selling at scale via Shopify with a clean hardware → app activation path. Blended CAC measured and tracked.
Paid acquisition firing post-seed-close at $5–10K/mo initial test budget, scaling to $20–50K/mo if unit economics validate.
Series A narrative writes itself: clinical evidence + activation lift + lifecycle compounding + first B2B install reference cases.

The 90-day priorities (which the rest of this doc operationalizes):

Kill the headphones gate. Ship the bedrock fix this week.
Run the three-variant onboarding test. Find the activation winner.
Ship Customer.io Flows 6 (eye mask post-purchase) and 4 (lapsed user) — hold Flow 2 (onboarding) until app UI stabilizes.
Rewrite the App Store listing in Quietude's brand voice. Highest-leverage non-site asset right now.
Stake the SEO foundation: consolidate to quietude.app, publish Pillar 1 hub + 3 spokes, publish the peer-reviewed psychophysiology study landing page.
Launch the ambassador program with the ~5 inbound waiting.

Everything else compounds on top of those six.

2. Strategic frame

This section distills positioning, ICP, and brand voice into what the team needs to keep in mind while executing. Full detail lives in marketing-os.md, icp.md, and sound-philosophy.md.

What Quietude is, in one sentence

A nervous system intelligence platform — clinically validated spatial audio + AI reflection companion (Mira) + hardware + venue installations + practitioner network. "We start with sound. We expand to every sense. We end with cities."

The category we're claiming (and defending)

Quietude doesn't fit the meditation app category, the focus audio category, or the sleep tech category. The brand makes a stronger claim: bottom-up nervous system regulation through spatial audio, with clinical evidence as proof and somatic credibility as defense.

The category-defining frame, per Alex (2026-05-19): Meditation is top-down. Quietude is bottom-up. Meditation uses the mind to command the body — mental kung fu that fails the very people most likely to need help, because the prefrontal cortex is offline when stressed. Quietude enters through the brainstem, before the thinking mind. The body responds before it has to try. (Full content-pillar treatment in meditation-vs-regulation.md.)

This is the single most important strategic message. It belongs in App Store copy, onboarding, lifecycle email, SEO content, ambassador talking points, and the seed deck.

Who we're for (D2C ICP, distilled)

Overstimulated high-achieving professionals, 25–45, urban (Bay Area, NYC, London, Berlin, Austin). Tech workers, founders, creators, academics, designers, consultants. Often neurodivergent (ADHD, HSP, gifted). Sophisticated wellness buyers — already invested heavily in their inner life.

Their stated problem: "I can't shut my brain off. I've tried meditation apps. They don't work."

Their real problem: Overstimulation, not under-motivation. Their gift (quick thinking) became a curse. They need permission to stop optimizing — including their rest.

What they're actually buying: the feeling of stability, sensory indulgence, beautiful rituals, effortless effectiveness, a luxurious shortcut to the genius they can't access in chaos.

The business model logic (per seed deck)

B2B seeds the market. D2C harvests. A venue install puts Quietude in front of ~20K people/year at ~$17K cost → 5% convert to subs → ~$430K/year per venue. Six compound channels (referral, Guides, content, home hosting, PR, community) make CAC approach zero by Year 3. Year 5: 75% of new subs come from near-zero-cost channels.

fCMO scope per kickoff: D2C-led. Alex owns B2B sales through events/network/founder credibility. The fCMO leverage is on the app/hardware D2C side. This plan reflects that split — B2B is acknowledged as the harvest engine but not treated as primary work surface.

Brand voice (the non-negotiable)

Per Marketing OS:

Tone. Authoritative yet accessible. Intimate yet professional. Revolutionary yet grounded. Authority comes from lived experience, not explanation.
Speak from the body, not the mind. Every sentence restores somatic safety and orientation. Language opens space rather than closing meaning.
YES vocabulary: Aliveness, inner life, nervous system, spatial sound, resonance, somatic safety, embodied clarity, natural rhythm, orientation, initiation, truth-telling.
NO vocabulary: Zen, chill, vibes, "high-vibe," spiritual bypass, meditation clichés, didactic/explainer language, "let me explain why this works."
Core method: Initiatory Reflection. Writing's purpose isn't to explain or convince — it's to shift the reader's internal state. The result should be "something in me moved," not "I understand this concept."
CTA rule: Never pressure. "We do not remind. We invite."

This rule constrains every piece of copy across every AARRR stage. When in doubt: rewrite from the body.

3. Current state

This is what we're starting from — team, budget, what's already in motion, what's stuck, scored against the CF Marketing Audit 17-section rubric.

Team composition (marketing surface area)

Person	Role	Marketing surface area
Alex	Co-founder, CEO	Owns: personal LinkedIn, live events, B2B sales, founder narrative, investor relations, brand voice authorship
Sam	Co-founder, CXO	Owns: clinical/somatic credibility, brand-voice stewardship, somatic angle on copy review, practitioner network
Devon	Lead Dev	Owns: product/UI build, instrumentation, Customer.io event wiring, App Store deployment
Ed Dorsey	Design Advisor	Advisory cadence (ex-Apple/Airbnb/Strava)
Emily Babich	Creative Strategy	Advisory cadence
Matt Mikkelsen	Field Recording	Audio library, not marketing
Casey Reed	fCMO	Strategy, lifecycle, SEO, onboarding tests, content, ambassador program, ops stack

No dedicated marketing hire yet. First hire likely post-seed close (Q3 2026 candidate): a lifecycle + content marketing manager who owns Customer.io, SEO content production, and ambassador operations day-to-day.

Marketing budget (current)

Paid acquisition: $0. Confirmed by Alex, 2026-05-20: "D2C UA so far: My personal LinkedIn posts, live Quietude events, organic word of mouth, and organic app store discovery." No paid layer.
Tooling stack: Customer.io subscription, Shopify (eye mask storefront), App Store Connect, GA4 (or pending), Stripe, Notion, Dub.co (ambassador attribution). Estimate ~$500–1,500/mo combined.
fCMO retainer: Casey Reed engagement.
PR: No paid PR. Organic longevity-influencer tailwind, consumer-tech angels + foundation-model lab network.

Implication: The 90-day plan must produce gains without any paid lever pulled. Everything in the next 12 weeks is organic, lifecycle, or product-level. Paid is a Q2–Q3 unlock.

What's already done (acknowledge, then build on)

Asset	Status	Marketing leverage
Peer-reviewed peer-reviewed psychophysiology study (2025)	Published	Anchor of clinical authority. Most undermarketed asset Quietude owns.
longevity-influencer eye-mask endorsement	Live, generating Shopify sales	Press hook. Underused for landing-page social proof.
consumer-tech angels + foundation-model lab investment	Closed	Investor PR opportunity. "Why I invested" Substack/Medium pieces.
15K+ live event participants over a decade	Real	Email list potential, ambassador pool, testimonial bank, B2B reference.
Quietude eye mask (5K in stock)	Selling	The wedge product. Hardware → app activation path.
38% 12-month retention (vs. category avg 20%)	Real	Headline metric. Belongs everywhere.
Customer.io + Shopify integration	Wired	The lifecycle infrastructure exists. Flows just need to ship.
4 GitHub repos for context + product	Set up	`quietude-context` (shared brain), `quietude-promo`, `quietude-app` (app), `mira` (AI), `quietude-api`
Alex's Sound Philosophy doc	Working doc	Linkable position paper once polished and published.
~5 inbound ambassadors waiting	Inbound	Referral program ready to launch — no demand-gen needed for v1.
Aurora B2B install (~€250K, July deadline)	In-flight	First flagship venue. Reference case once installed.
Notion Knowledge Directory	Live	Internal context.
Customer.io MCP (Claude integration)	Validated on kickoff	Non-technical team can ship flows independently.

What's in-flight (drafted but not shipped)

Item	Status	Blocker
Flow 2 — App Onboarding (8 emails / 14 days)	Draft	App UI in flux; copy references screens that may change
Flow 4 — Lapsed User Re-engagement (5 emails / 38 days)	Draft	None — ship-ready
Flow 6 — Eye Mask Post-Purchase	Draft	None — ship-ready
Onboarding rebuild (3-variant test plan)	Strategy doc done	Eng scoping + headphone-gate removal
SEO 90-day plan + keyword research	Done	Awaiting domain consolidation decision + content production start

What's stuck (and needs to unstick this quarter)

Issue	Cost of inaction	Action
Headphones hard-gate in onboarding	Confirmed conversion drop post-launch	Kill this week (bedrock fix)
4 domains unconsolidated (quietude.app, quietude.space, quietude.audio, quietude.center)	SEO authority fragmenting, transactional email confusion	Consolidate to `quietude.app` per SEO data
App Store listing copy not in brand voice	Highest-traffic Quietude surface; off-brand experience for arriving users	Rewrite in voice (Pillar 1)
Domain consolidation requires 301 plan + email sender migration	Risk of traffic loss if mishandled	Plan in weeks 1–2, execute weeks 3–4
`quietude-promo` repo hasn't shipped since March 2026	Marketing site is stale	Confirm whether it's live; rewrite or replace
29% monthly App Store churn vs. 38% 12-month retention claim	Metric definition mismatch confusing the team	Reconcile with Devon + Customer.io data
Mira post-session reflection scope unknown	Blocks Variant B and Variant C onboarding tests	Resolve with Devon

Audit rubric snapshot (17-section)

Scored 0–5 from materials, using the embedded rubric in references/current-state-rubric.md. Marked "scored from materials" rather than "formal audit" — Alex can push back on any score where they have better data.

#	Section	Score	Note
1	Positioning	4	Clear, original category claim. The bottom-up frame is the strongest piece. Needs broader external articulation.
2	Customer research	4	Deep founder-led research, decade of live participants. Could be more systematically captured.
3	Homepage	2	`quietude-promo` hasn't shipped since March. Off-brand voice in places.
4	Sales / product pages	2	Eye mask page exists on Shopify but isn't optimized for SEO or sales narrative. No app-product landing page in brand voice.
5	Conversion pages	2	`/partner` exists on `quietude.app`. No `/science`, `/eye-mask`, `/ambassadors`, `/guides` pages live.
6	Competitor comparison	1	Nothing exists. Big SEO + sales opportunity (own "Quietude vs. Calm/Headspace/Brain.fm/Endel" SERPs).
7	Resources / content	1	Sound Philosophy not yet public. peer-reviewed psychophysiology study not yet on a dedicated page. No blog.
8	Onboarding	2	Headphones gate killing conversion. Hold-and-fix project this quarter.
9	Email lifecycle	1	All three flows drafted, none live. Ship-order set.
10	Sales material	3	Seed deck is strong (investor-facing). B2B sales material more founder-led than asset-led.
11	Messaging	5	Alex + Sam have authored the most distinctive brand voice in the wellness category. This is a moat.
12	Pricing	3	$30/mo app, $45 eye mask, $7,500 speakers, $50–200K B2B. Hasn't been pressure-tested for D2C conversion lift.
13	CRO	2	App Store conversion rate trackable but no A/B history. Headphones gate is the obvious first test removal.
14	GTM / launches	2	App in throttled beta. Major launches (eye mask, Mira public) haven't had structured GTM.
15	Ads	0	No paid layer. Reflects the current organic strategy — not a weakness, but the budget unlock means this will move.
16	SEO	1	Current state: 7 organic visits/mo. Plan exists; execution not yet started.
17	Internationalization	1	Finland HQ + global ICP, but EN-only and US-centric copy. Defer until Q4+.

Total: 36 / 85 (42%). The shape matters more than the score: high in Positioning + Messaging + Customer research, low in Conversion pages + Email lifecycle + SEO + Resources + Ads. That's the gap this plan closes.

4. Acquisition

"How do strangers become aware of Quietude?"

Current state

100% organic. Four real channels: Alex's personal LinkedIn, live Quietude events, organic word of mouth, organic App Store discovery. Plus passive PR drag from longevity-influencer endorsement + clinical study.

This is good news, not bad. Every dollar of revenue earned to date has been earned without paid acquisition. The bar to exceed it isn't high; the upside on top of an organic base is significant.

The plan

Channel 1 — SEO (primary 90-day investment). The full 90-day plan lives in seo/plan.md. Summary: consolidate to quietude.app, target three asymmetric clusters (nervous-system regulation KD 14–32, weighted/blackout sleep mask KD 6–30, WELL + social-wellness-club B2B KD 5–34), publish 4 content pillars. 90-day target: 500–1,500 organic visits/mo, 80+ ranking keywords. 12-month target: 10,000/mo, 1,000+ keywords.

Channel 2 — App Store optimization (highest-leverage non-site asset). The App Store listing is currently the most-visited Quietude URL by Apple's algorithm. Fixing the copy is higher-leverage this quarter than fixing the marketing site. Rewrite in brand voice. Add the meditation-vs-regulation framing. Lead with the clinical anchor. Test screenshot variations.

Channel 3 — Alex's LinkedIn (productize the channel). Today it's ad-hoc founder posting. The next move is structured: a 2–3x/week cadence, post categories that map to the content pillars (nervous system, sound science, founder journey, clinical evidence, behind-the-scenes), trackable links via Dub, follower → email subscriber → app install funnel measured. This is Alex's voice — the channel only works if he's the one writing. fCMO + Typefully scheduling makes the cadence sustainable.

Channel 4 — PR amplification. longevity-influencer tailwind is real but underused on owned surfaces. Add a /notable-users or /in-the-press page. Pitch the peer-reviewed psychophysiology study to 5 outlets (wellness press: Well+Good, MindBodyGreen; tech-adjacent: Wired with the longevity-influencer hook; mainstream: Outside, Forbes Wellness). HARO/Help-A-B2B-Writer responses citing Quietude's data. Investor PR moments ("Why I invested in Quietude" Substack pieces from consumer-tech angels — push for these with backlinks).

Channel 5 — Event-to-app instrumentation. Live events are the highest-converting ICP exposure Quietude has (15K+ participants, decade of trust). They're un-instrumented. Add: per-event QR code → app install + email capture, post-event lifecycle (Customer.io Flow 7?), event ROI tracking. Goal: turn an event from a one-night conversion moment into a 30-day funnel.

Channel 6 — Eye mask wedge (consumer entry product). 5K masks in stock. Shopify storefront exists but isn't optimized. Improvements: SEO-optimize the product page (target "weighted sleep mask," "blackout sleep mask," "silk sleep mask"), add reviews via Judge.me (per kickoff decision), 30-day return policy (US-market expectation, per kickoff), build the listicle ("Quietude vs. Manta vs. Nodpod vs. Lumon"). Consider Amazon listing as a v2 distribution play.

Channel 7 — B2B venue installs (kept lean per kickoff). Alex owns this. Marketing supports with: case studies after each install, /partner page rewrite in voice (already exists on quietude.app), Pillar 4 content ("The Missing Sound Feature in WELL"), reciprocal links from partner venues baked into contracts.

Channel 8 — Paid layer (unlocked post-seed close). Held until seed funding lands. Initial test budget: $5–10K/mo split across Apple Search Ads (highest-intent for App Store), Meta (Instagram + Facebook for eye mask), LinkedIn (B2B venue buyers). Don't fire until: (a) onboarding bedrock fix is shipped, (b) Flow 6 is live, (c) at least one Pillar landing page is in voice. Paid amplifies what already works — premature paid amplifies what's broken.

90-day acquisition moves

Weeks 1–2: Domain consolidation decision + 301 plan. App Store listing rewrite first pass.
Weeks 3–4: Domain 301s executed. GSC migration. SEO Pillar 1 hub drafted.
Weeks 5–8: Pillar 1 hub + 3 spokes published. Pillar 2 (Eye Mask) hub + listicle published. Alex's LinkedIn cadence operationalized via Typefully. peer-reviewed psychophysiology study lands on dedicated /science page.
Weeks 9–12: Pillar 4 (WELL/B2B) cornerstone published. Sound Philosophy goes public at /research/sound-philosophy. First PR push: pitch study + longevity-influencer hook to 5 outlets.

12-month acquisition outlook

Q1 (Months 1–3): Foundation. SEO pillars staked. App Store rewrite shipped. LinkedIn cadence stable. PR push launched.
Q2 (Months 4–6, post-seed close): Paid acquisition pilot at $5–10K/mo. SEO compounding — Pillar 1 ranking. First B2B install reference case live.
Q3 (Months 7–9): Paid scales to $20–30K/mo if unit economics hold. All four pillars producing. App GA — new GTM moment.
Q4 (Months 10–12): Compound channels live. 50+ pieces of pillar content. First Quietude Guides program pilot creating local SEO + earned media.

Skills + tools

Skills: seo-audit, ai-seo, programmatic-seo, schema, content-strategy, competitors, launch, ads, ad-creative, social, typefully, analytics, copywriting, marketing-website-design, free-tools
MCPs / APIs: Ahrefs API, DataForSEO API, Typefully MCP (LinkedIn scheduling), GA4 MCP (when wired), GitHub MCP (quietude-promo repo work), Notion (knowledge directory), Stripe MCP (LTV / paid-CAC math), agent-browser (LinkedIn drafting + testing), defuddle (research)

5. Activation

"Once someone tries Quietude, do they have an experience that converts?"

Current state

Day 1 → paid: 1.34%. Day 7 → paid: 3.73%. Day 35 → paid: 5.46%. The funnel shape is the signal. The ~4× lift over 35 days means the product converts given time and contact — both of which the current onboarding undermines and the lifecycle layer doesn't yet provide.

Caveats: app is in throttled beta. Metrics are noisy. Don't optimize against absolutes; optimize against funnel shape and cohort comparison.

The plan

Move 1 — Kill the headphones hard-gate (bedrock fix, this week). Confirmed conversion drop after the gate shipped. The fix isn't better copy on the gate — it's removing the gate. Replace with passive headphone detection + soft single-line nudge. No regret change. Full reasoning in onboarding-recommendation.md.

Move 2 — Run the three-variant onboarding test. Three variants, each a pure expression of one belief about what drives activation in this ICP:

Variant 1 — Trust First. Bold promise + clinical anchor + testimonial wall + 1-line mechanism. Tests whether the saturated ICP needs framing before they'll invest.
Variant 2 — Seen First. Multi-step diagnostic → AI-generated "we see you" summary → personalized session. Tests whether being accurately named is the conversion event.
Variant 3 — Felt First. Audio starts on app open. ~15 words on screen. The session IS the onboarding. Tests whether the product can carry it cold.

Test sequence (sequential, ~7 weeks to a winner): bedrock baseline → V3 vs. baseline → winner vs. V1 → winner vs. V2. Full system in onboarding-recommendation.md.

Move 3 — App Store listing rewrite. Highest-leverage non-site asset. Rewrite in brand voice. Lead with meditation-vs-regulation. Screenshot variations to test. This is also an Acquisition move (organic discovery) but it lives here because it's the threshold to the trial.

Move 4 — Customer.io Flow 2 (held until UI stable). The 8-email / 14-day onboarding sequence is drafted and on-brand. Holding the ship because the emails reference in-app screens that will change during the onboarding rebuild. Once a winning onboarding variant ships, Flow 2 gets a copy refresh against the final UI and goes live.

Move 5 — Paywall + pricing review (cross-cuts to Revenue). What's the current trial structure? Length, paywall trigger, intro pricing? When the funnel shape is "lift over 35 days," extending trial may convert better than aggressively gating earlier. To be audited in Q1.

90-day activation moves

Week 1: Headphones gate removed. Baseline established.
Weeks 2–3: Variant 3 (Felt First) prototyped, instrumented, shipped to a test cohort.
Weeks 4–5: Read Variant 3 vs. baseline. Decide ship/iterate. Begin Variant 1 build.
Weeks 6–7: Variant 1 (Trust First) live.
Weeks 8–9: Read V1 vs. winner. Begin Variant 2 build.
Weeks 10–11: Variant 2 (Seen First) live.
Week 12: Final read. Winning variant scheduled for permanent ship. Flow 2 unblocked.

12-month activation outlook

Q1: Winning variant identified and shipped.
Q2: Flow 2 ships. Paywall A/B tests start.
Q3: GA launch — onboarding re-validated at higher traffic. Cohort segmentation by acquisition source (Shopify/eye-mask vs. direct vs. ambassador vs. paid) starts to drive variant forks.
Q4: Onboarding is no longer the bottleneck. Focus moves to Activation → Retention transition (sessions 2–7).

Skills + tools

Skills: onboarding, signup, cro, cro, paywalls, popups, copywriting, copy-editing, copycraft, marketing-website-design, ab-testing, marketing-psychology
MCPs / APIs: App Store Connect (manual + dev-browser for screenshot automation), GitHub MCP (quietude-app app repo for onboarding code), Figma / Pencil MCP (for onboarding screen design), Customer.io MCP (for any in-app/email coordination), GA4 MCP (activation events)

6. Retention

"Once someone converts, do they stay — and deepen?"

Current state

Headline metric (per seed deck): 38% 12-month retention — nearly double the category average (~20%). This is the strongest single retention signal in the deck and one of the most undermarketed claims Quietude owns.

App Store snapshot, 2026-05-16: 145 paid, 42 churned (~29% monthly churn). Definition mismatch with the 38% claim — to reconcile. Possibly: 38% is annual cohort retention (people who paid month 1 and still pay month 12), 29% is gross monthly churn (people who paid this month who didn't pay next month). Both can be true. Need to clarify which metric is reported externally and which is the actual product health signal.

The plan

Move 1 — Ship Flow 6 first (Eye Mask Post-Purchase). Per kickoff decision and the onboarding-recommendation doc: this is the ship-ready flow. Hardware-anchored, doesn't reference in-app screens, can ship today. Wires the hardware → app activation path (eye mask buyers should get a free 6-month Premium trial — formalize this as part of the flow).

Move 2 — Ship Flow 4 second (Lapsed User Re-engagement). Five emails over 38 days. Language is universal — doesn't depend on app UI state. Ship after Flow 6 is live.

Move 3 — Hold Flow 2 (Onboarding). Eight emails over 14 days. Holds until app UI stabilizes post-onboarding-rebuild. Don't ship copy that will need rewriting in 8 weeks.

Move 4 — Customer.io subscription center with opt-in topics. Per kickoff decision. Topics: events, app updates, somatics & nervous system, eye mask promotions. Users self-segment. Improves deliverability (lower complaint rates) and gives lifecycle a richer segmentation surface.

Move 5 — Mira post-session reflection (when scoped). Most powerful retention move medium-term. After a session, Mira asks "What did you notice?" Optional preset chips + free text. Two payoffs: (a) gives Mira priors for personalization on session 2+, (b) reflection responses become a content + segmentation goldmine for the team. Scope question for Devon — does Mira currently support this, or is it new build?

Move 6 — Hardware → app activation flow. The eye-mask-buyer-becomes-Premium-subscriber path is hinted in the seed deck (blended CAC via hardware) but isn't visible in the App Store dashboard. Audit the existing flow: does an eye mask Shopify purchase actually deliver a free Premium code? How is it redeemed? What's the conversion rate? This is foundational to the "B2C wedge" thesis.

Move 7 — Reconcile the retention metric. What's the actual definition of "38% 12-month retention"? Cohort? Plan type (monthly vs. annual)? Survives this even if the answer is uncomfortable — the team and investors need to be talking about the same metric.

Move 8 — Annual plan as default (cross-cuts to Revenue). Industry pattern: defaulting to annual reduces churn anxiety and improves LTV. To test in Q2.

90-day retention moves

Weeks 1–2: Flow 6 (eye mask post-purchase) ships. Address fixes from kickoff review (study link line break, CAN-SPAM footer, founder face-bubble signature, Judge.me reviews).
Weeks 3–4: Flow 4 (lapsed user re-engagement) ships.
Weeks 5–6: Customer.io subscription center built and live.
Weeks 7–8: Hardware → app activation flow audited and documented. Fix any leaks.
Weeks 9–10: Retention metric reconciliation (with Devon).
Weeks 11–12: Win-back campaign for churned cohort — test re-activation copy.

12-month retention outlook

Q1: Flows 6 + 4 firing. Subscription center live.
Q2: Flow 2 ships (post-onboarding-rebuild). Mira post-session reflection in production. Annual plan default tested.
Q3: GA launch — retention metrics re-baselined at higher volume. Cohort-based lifecycle flows (eye mask vs. direct app install).
Q4: Full lifecycle compound. Retention is no longer a top-three concern — focus moves to Referral and Revenue.

Skills + tools

Skills: emails, churn-prevention, copywriting, copy-editing, paywalls, ab-testing
MCPs / APIs: Customer.io MCP (validated on kickoff — non-technical team can ship flows), Shopify (eye mask buyers as event source), Stripe MCP (subscription state, churn cohort pulls), GA4 MCP (session events, retention curves)

7. Referral

"Do retained users bring more users — and at what cost?"

Current state

~5 inbound ambassadors waiting (per kickoff). Dub.co set up. No formal program yet. WOM happens naturally per Alex's UA breakdown.

This is one of the strongest leading indicators in the business: 5 unaffiliated people have raised their hand asking to bring Quietude to their network before any program exists. That signal doesn't show up in apps with weaker product-market fit.

The plan

Move 1 — Launch the ambassador program with the 5 inbound. Tier 1 of the program. Per-ambassador landing pages (e.g., quietude.app/with/sarah). Dub.co tracks attribution. Commission structure to determine (per kickoff, $/sub or rev-share TBD). Soft-launch with the 5 — treat as pilot cohort, gather feedback, refine before opening applications.

Move 2 — Build the share-after-shift moment. The Mira post-session reflection (see Retention) is the natural moment to surface a share prompt. After a user reports a felt shift, offer: "Want to share Quietude with someone who needs this?" Single-line, never pushy. Most powerful WOM mechanism: gift-a-month flow where the recipient gets a discounted or free intro.

Move 3 — Founder amplification (Alex + Sam as ambassador-zero). Alex mentioning the fCMO engagement in fundraise pitches (permission granted). Reciprocal mentions in fCMO-side content. Sam's clinical network → practitioner ambassador pool.

Move 4 — Quietude Guides cert pilot (long-term, Q3+). The Guides program is the Phase-2 referral compound (per seed deck). 500–1,000 Guides across 50+ cities by Y3–5. First cert pilot: 3–5 hosts who run live sessions, get a rev-share + co-marketing. Builds local SEO + earned media + ambassador-of-ambassadors flywheel. Hold until paid + lifecycle are firing — Guides is a multi-quarter build.

Move 5 — Eye mask gifting flow. Hardware referral is rare and powerful. "Send a friend an Quietude eye mask. They get the mask + a free 3-month Premium. You get a credit toward your next thing." Holiday/gifting peak windows are the test.

90-day referral moves

Weeks 1–4: Ambassador program scoped, commission structure decided, per-ambassador landing page template built, 5 inbound onboarded.
Weeks 5–8: First ambassador-driven sales tracked via Dub. Attribution and payout flow validated.
Weeks 9–12: Open applications for next 10–15 ambassadors. Begin Quietude Guides scoping.

12-month referral outlook

Q1: Ambassador program live with 5–10 active.
Q2: 15–25 active ambassadors. Share-after-shift moment in production (post-Mira reflection).
Q3: Guides cert pilot launched (3–5 hosts). Eye mask gifting flow live for holiday peak.
Q4: 50+ ambassadors + 5–10 Guides. Referral driving 15–25% of new D2C subs.

Skills + tools

Skills: referrals, social, copywriting, marketing-website-design (per-ambassador landing pages)
MCPs / APIs: Dub.co (attribution — already in stack), Stripe MCP (commission accounting + payouts), GitHub MCP (landing page deployment in quietude-promo or new quietude-ambassadors repo), Customer.io MCP (ambassador lifecycle: onboarding, monthly performance digest, payout notification)

8. Revenue

"What do we charge, who pays, and how does that compound?"

Current state

Product	Price	Volume signal
Quietude App + Mira	~$30/mo	145 paid subs (App Store snapshot 2026-05-16)
Quietude Eye Mask	~$45	5K in stock, longevity-influencer PR-driven sales
Quietude Audio (speakers)	~$7,500	Niche, founder-led
Quietude Spaces (B2B install)	$50–200K	Aurora flagship in-flight (~€250K), pipeline of 4 venues
Quietude Experiences (events)	Varies	15K+ historical participants
Quietude Guides	Rev share	Not yet operational

Revenue to date: ~$500K on ~$250K raised. Capital-efficient. Hardware + B2B + app subs all contributing.

MRR (App Store snapshot): $592. Beta-throttled, not steady-state. The implied ~$4/sub/mo against $30/mo list suggests heavy annual plan adoption (which compresses monthly revenue but improves LTV) or significant promotional pricing — to reconcile with Alex.

The plan

Move 1 — Pricing audit. What's actually being charged today? List price, common plan mix, intro pricing, churn-recovery offers? The $4/sub/mo implied math doesn't tell a clean story — need ground truth before recommending changes.

Move 2 — Annual plan as default (test). Industry pattern, cross-references to Retention. Test in Q2.

Move 3 — Hardware → app bundling formalized. Per partner-event-business framing in the seed deck: blended CAC via hardware → app subscription is the play. Today an eye mask buyer gets... what, exactly? Free Premium? Trial code? Audit + formalize. The eye mask is the wedge; the app is the LTV.

Move 4 — Eye mask Shopify storefront optimization. The current page underperforms what it could. Add: SEO targeting ("weighted sleep mask," "blackout sleep mask"), Judge.me reviews (kickoff decision), 30-day return policy (kickoff decision), upsell flow into Premium app.

Move 5 — Consider Amazon listing for eye mask. Amazon takes margin but is its own discovery engine. Test as v2 distribution if Shopify volume validates.

Move 6 — B2B install case studies + sales material. Alex owns B2B sales but marketing supports with: post-install case studies (Aurora as the flagship), /partner page rewrite in voice, Pillar 4 SEO content. Each B2B install is a ~$430K/year recurring + reference-case multiplier.

Move 7 — Data licensing (long-term, flag for ops stack). Per seed deck Y10–15 value pool: $100–160M/yr. Not immediate revenue. Belongs in the 24-month strategic agenda. Flag here so we don't lose sight.

90-day revenue moves

Weeks 1–2: Pricing audit. Reconcile implied vs. listed MRR.
Weeks 3–4: Hardware → app activation flow audited (also Retention move 6).
Weeks 5–8: Eye mask Shopify page rewrite + SEO optimization + Judge.me + return policy. Aurora case study scaffolded for post-install.
Weeks 9–12: Annual plan default test scoped.

12-month revenue outlook

Q1: Pricing audit closes. Hardware → app activation formalized.
Q2: Annual plan default test live. Eye mask Shopify producing measurable lift.
Q3: B2B install case studies (1–2) published. GA launch + new pricing tier consideration (e.g., a higher-tier Mira-heavy plan?).
Q4: Pricing optimized via test results. Hardware → app blended CAC tracked and reported. First numbers on the data-licensing thesis (still very early).

Skills + tools

Skills: pricing, paywalls, sales-enablement, revops, ab-testing, copywriting
MCPs / APIs: Stripe MCP (pricing tests, subscription analytics, churn cohort, blended CAC math), Customer.io MCP (paywall-related lifecycle), Shopify (eye mask transactions), GA4 MCP (revenue events), Notion (commercial knowledge directory)

9. 90-day roadmap

Tactical execution layer. Each item is AARRR-tagged so priority is visible.

Weeks 1–2 — Unblock

Move	Stage	Owner
Kill the headphones hard-gate	Activation	Casey + Devon
Domain consolidation decision documented	Acquisition	Casey + Alex
301 plan drafted (page-by-page)	Acquisition	Casey
App Store listing rewrite — first pass	Activation + Acquisition	Casey + Alex + Sam (voice review)
Flow 6 (eye mask post-purchase) ships	Retention	Casey + Customer.io MCP
Ambassador program scoping doc	Referral	Casey
Pricing audit kicked off	Revenue	Casey + Alex

Weeks 3–4 — Foundation

Move	Stage	Owner
Domain consolidation 301s executed	Acquisition	Devon + Casey
GSC + GA4 stood up on `quietude.app`	Acquisition	Casey
SEO Pillar 1 hub drafted (Nervous System Regulation)	Acquisition	Casey
`/science` hub built with peer-reviewed psychophysiology study	Acquisition + brand	Casey + Sam
Variant 3 (Felt First) onboarding prototyped + tested	Activation	Casey + Devon
Flow 4 (lapsed user) ships	Retention	Casey
Ambassador program: 5 inbound onboarded	Referral	Casey
Hardware → app activation flow audited	Retention + Revenue	Casey + Devon
App Store listing rewrite — final + ship	Activation + Acquisition	Alex + Sam + Casey

Weeks 5–8 — Velocity

Move	Stage	Owner
Pillar 1 hub + 3 spokes published	Acquisition	Casey
Pillar 2 hub (Eye Mask) + listicle published	Acquisition	Casey
Alex's LinkedIn cadence operationalized (Typefully)	Acquisition	Alex + Casey
First PR push: study + longevity-influencer hook to 5 outlets	Acquisition	Casey + Alex
Variant 3 read; ship or iterate	Activation	Casey
Variant 1 (Trust First) prototyped + tested	Activation	Casey + Devon
Customer.io subscription center built	Retention	Casey
Eye mask Shopify storefront rewrite (SEO + reviews + return)	Acquisition + Revenue	Casey + Alex
First ambassador attribution verified via Dub	Referral	Casey

Weeks 9–12 — Compound

Move	Stage	Owner
Pillar 4 (WELL/B2B) cornerstone published	Acquisition	Casey
3 more Pillar 1 spokes published	Acquisition	Casey
Sound Philosophy published at `/research/sound-philosophy`	Acquisition + brand	Alex + Casey
Variant 1 read; begin Variant 2 (Seen First) build (Mira-dependent)	Activation	Casey + Devon
Win-back campaign for churned cohort	Retention	Casey
Annual plan default test scoped	Revenue	Casey + Alex
Open ambassador applications for next 10–15	Referral	Casey
90-day review + Q2 plan recalibration	Cross-cutting	Casey + Alex

10. 12-month outlook

Quarterly milestones with funding-stage capability unlocks named explicitly.

Q1 — Months 1–3 (Jun–Aug 2026)

Funding state: Pre-seed-close. Paid budget = $0. fCMO + founder-led + tool costs only.

Focus: Foundation. Plug the leaks. Stake the SEO ground. Get lifecycle firing.

Outcomes by end of Q1:

Headphones gate gone; onboarding winner identified
All four SEO pillars seeded (hub + first spokes)
Lifecycle Flows 4 + 6 live
App Store listing in brand voice
5 ambassadors active
Pricing audit closed
Domain consolidated

KPI targets: Onboarding Day 1 → paid lift of 25–50%. Organic traffic 500–1,500/mo. App Store conversion rate +20%.

Q2 — Months 4–6 (Sep–Nov 2026)

Funding state: Seed close (~Q3 2026 target). First paid budget unlock: $5–10K/mo test.

Focus: Validate paid. Scale winning onboarding. Add Flow 2.

Outcomes by end of Q2:

Paid acquisition firing on Apple Search Ads + Meta
Onboarding winner permanently shipped
Flow 2 (onboarding emails) shipped
Mira post-session reflection in production
15–25 ambassadors active
First B2B install reference case (Aurora) published
Annual plan default tested

KPI targets: Paid CAC < $50 blended. Organic traffic 1,500–3,500/mo. Retention curves visibly improving.

Q3 — Months 7–9 (Dec 2026–Feb 2027)

Funding state: Seed deployment. Paid scales to $20–50K/mo if unit economics hold. First marketing hire (lifecycle + content manager).

Focus: Scale + diversify. App GA. B2B reference cases compound.

Outcomes by end of Q3:

App GA launched with new GTM moment (PR + ad creative refresh + Pillar 3 spatial-audio-science content cycle)
First Quietude Guides cert pilot (3–5 hosts)
All four pillars producing weekly content
Eye mask gifting flow live for holiday peak
New marketing hire onboarded

KPI targets: Paid + organic blended CAC stabilizing. App GA conversion +50% from beta baseline. Guides pilot validates rev-share + co-marketing model.

Q4 — Months 10–12 (Mar–May 2027)

Funding state: Pre–Series A. Paid scaling continues. Series A pitch in motion.

Focus: Compound. Position for Series A.

Outcomes by end of Q4:

Compound channels (organic + ambassador + Guides + lifecycle) producing 50%+ of new subs
50+ ambassadors, 5–10 Guides
4 SEO pillars + 30+ pieces of content live
Paid scaling to $50–150K/mo if validated
Series A narrative: clinical evidence + activation lift + lifecycle compounding + B2B reference case pipeline

KPI targets: D2C ARR run-rate trajectory clear. Blended LTV/CAC > 3. Founder narrative + data + reference cases ready for Series A.

11. Marketing operations stack

This is what makes the plan executable at Quietude's team size. A 4-person founder team + fCMO + agentic tooling can ship the output of a 15–20-person traditional marketing org — because the marketing skill library and MCP integrations do the orchestration.

The thesis

Every move in the AARRR breakdown above maps to (a) one or more marketing skills that operationalize the work, and (b) one or more MCP/API integrations that let it execute without a dedicated headcount per channel.

The fCMO's job is to:

Define the strategy and sequencing (this doc)
Run the skills against the right context at the right time
Maintain the shared context (quietude-context) and tooling so Alex + Sam + future hires can plug in
Hand off operational work to humans (or future hires) only where the cost of agentic execution > human execution

Skills mapped to AARRR stages

Stage	Primary skills	Supporting skills
Acquisition	`seo-audit`, `ai-seo`, `programmatic-seo`, `schema`, `content-strategy`, `competitors`, `ads`, `ad-creative`, `social`, `typefully`	`launch`, `free-tools`, `analytics`, `cold-email`, `copywriting`, `marketing-website-design`
Activation	`onboarding`, `signup`, `paywalls`, `cro`, `copywriting`, `copy-editing`, `copycraft`	`marketing-website-design`, `ab-testing`, `marketing-psychology`, `cro`, `popups`
Retention	`emails`, `churn-prevention`	`copywriting`, `copy-editing`, `ab-testing`, `paywalls`
Referral	`referrals`, `social`	`copywriting`, `marketing-website-design`, `emails`
Revenue	`pricing`, `paywalls`, `sales-enablement`, `revops`	`ab-testing`, `copywriting`
Cross-cutting (brand, intelligence)	`product-marketing`, `customer-research`, `marketing-psychology`	`marketing-ideas`, `diagram-maker`

MCPs / APIs mapped to stages

Stage	Existing connections at Quietude	Tooling layer (Casey's fCMO stack)
Acquisition	App Store Connect (manual), Shopify, GA4 (in progress), Notion	Ahrefs API, DataForSEO API, Typefully MCP, GitHub MCP (`quietude-promo`), `agent-browser`, `defuddle`
Activation	App Store Connect, Customer.io, Shopify	App Store Connect (via `dev-browser` for screenshot automation), Figma / Pencil MCP, GitHub MCP (`quietude-app` app repo), Stripe MCP
Retention	Customer.io (with Claude MCP — validated on kickoff), Stripe, Shopify	Customer.io MCP, Stripe MCP, GA4 MCP
Referral	Dub.co, Stripe	Dub.co, Stripe MCP, GitHub MCP (per-ambassador landing pages), Customer.io MCP
Revenue	Stripe, Shopify, Customer.io	Stripe MCP, Shopify, GA4 MCP, Notion
Cross-cutting	Notion, GitHub (`quietude-context`)	Notion, GitHub MCP, `defuddle`, `obsidian-cli` (for Casey's working notes)

The Customer.io MCP unlock (concrete example)

Per kickoff call: "Built live on call — abandoned-cart flow drafted using Customer.io's Claude MCP. Validated that non-technical team can use the skill pattern independently."

This is the operational proof that the stack works. Alex, who is not a developer, drafted a working lifecycle flow with Claude + Customer.io MCP in real time on a kickoff call. The same pattern applies to: Flow 4 ship (lapsed user re-engagement), subscription center build, win-back campaign, eye mask gifting flow, ambassador lifecycle. The fCMO's role becomes orchestration + brand-voice QA, not hand-cranking each email.

Capability unlocks by funding stage

Stage	Headcount	Tooling	Channels live
Pre-seed-close (now)	fCMO + founder team	All current tooling + Casey's marketing skill library + MCP layer	Organic only (SEO, content, App Store, LinkedIn, events, WOM, ambassador)
Seed close (~Q3 2026)	+ first marketing hire (lifecycle/content) by end of Q3	+ paid ad accounts (Apple Search Ads, Meta, LinkedIn)	+ paid acquisition pilot $5–10K/mo
Seed deployment (Q3–Q4 2026)	+ designer (potentially fractional)	+ analytics expansion (Mixpanel or Amplitude if needed)	+ paid scaling $20–50K/mo, + Guides cert pilot
Series A (2027)	+ performance marketing lead + content lead	+ dedicated tooling spend (~$2–5K/mo software)	+ paid scaling $50–150K/mo, + international, + B2B vertical expansion

The marketing skill library scales these stages. Every channel added doesn't require a 1:1 headcount increase because each skill encodes the workflow.

12. Tactical idea bank — 139-idea cross-reference

The marketing-ideas skill catalogs 139 proven marketing tactics. Sections 4–8 (AARRR) prescribe what we're doing. This section maps the full universe of what's possible — every idea cross-referenced to the AARRR stage it primarily serves, with Quietude applicability and timing.

This is the exhaustive menu. The plan above is the curated path. When we move to Q2 / Q3 / Series A and unlock new capacity, this is the inventory we pull from.

Status legend:

Now (Q1) — already in the 90-day plan OR can run alongside it without new capacity
Q2 — post-bedrock-fix, post-foundation; second-quarter layer-ins
Q3+ — post-seed-close, post-GA; expansion moves
Q4+ — long-game / large-investment moves
Skip / off-brand — incompatible with Quietude's brand voice, business model, or product category

12.1 Acquisition ideas (88 mapped)

Now (Q1):

#	Idea	Quietude note
1	Easy Keyword Ranking	SEO plan Tier-1 cluster (nervous system, sleep mask, B2B) targets this directly
2	SEO Audit	Run `/seo-audit quietude.app` quarterly; publish findings as content
5	Content Repurposing	Sound Philosophy → essays → LinkedIn posts → newsletter → podcast loop
6	Proprietary Data Content	peer-reviewed psychophysiology study now; anonymized Quietude HRV / sleep dataset later
7	Internal Linking	Built into the pillar/spoke structure of the SEO plan
10	Parasite SEO	Alex's LinkedIn already does this; consider mirror to Substack
12	Marketing Jiu-Jitsu	Meditation-vs-Regulation IS this — turn "meditation works" assumption against itself
36	Quora Marketing	Answer "why meditation doesn't work for me" + HRV + somatic questions
37	Reddit Keyword Research	Mine r/somatic, r/CPTSD, r/HSP, r/ADHD for ICP language (feeds Customer Language #139)
39	LinkedIn Audience	Alex's channel productized — primary D2C top-of-funnel today
59	Article Quotes	HARO / Help-A-B2B-Writer for Alex + Sam — easy press wins
70	Conference Speaking	Alex: WELL Conference, biophilic design events, Mindful Leadership Summit
74	Press Coverage	Pitch peer-reviewed study + longevity-influencer hook to 5 outlets in Q1
109	Public Demos	Live Quietude events ARE this; instrument the in-person → app conversion
114	Moneyball Marketing	Already practicing — asymmetric SEO keywords, undervalued channels
133	Investor Marketing	Alex's raise — leverage angel backchannel for PR + intros

Q2:

#	Idea	Quietude note
3	Glossary Marketing	Sound + nervous system glossary — "what is polyvagal," "what is HRV," "what is somatic listening"
8	Content Refreshing	Revisit Pillar 1 quarterly with new data and search-intent updates
11	Competitor Comparison Pages	Quietude vs. Calm / Headspace / Brain.fm / Endel / Wavepaths — high-intent SERPs
13	Competitive Ad Research	SpyFu + Facebook Ad Library before launching paid
17	Quiz Marketing	"What's your nervous system profile?" — generates personalization seed + lead capture
25	Facebook Ads	Eye mask creative + somatic content + retargeting from event attendees
26	Instagram Ads	Visual product + Reels-native ads (eye mask especially)
28	LinkedIn Ads	B2B venue buyers + investor-adjacent ICP
31	Google Ads	Apple Search Ads first (App Store intent); Google for eye mask + B2B
38	Reddit Marketing	Authentic participation in r/somatic, r/HSP, r/ADHD after content base exists
40	Instagram Audience	Eye mask + somatic creators; Reels-native
44	Comment Marketing	Thoughtful comments on Huberman / the partner-event-business / Tim Ferriss / wellness creators
49	Monthly Newsletters	Either Quietude-branded or sync with Sam's Sam's Substack newsletter
54	Affiliate Discovery via Backlinks	Find who links to Calm/Headspace/Brain.fm — pitch them on Quietude affiliate program
58	Newsletter Swaps	the partner-event-business, founder wellness Substacks, Alex's investor network
64	Community Sponsorship	Somatic newsletters, wellness Substacks, founder communities
65	Live Webinars	Alex + Sam hosting "Sound + the Nervous System"
101	Industry Interviews	Alex + Sam interview category experts (becomes seed of Quietude podcast)
102	Social Screenshots	Mira reflection responses (anonymized, consented) — social proof gold
108	Changelogs	Public changelog at `quietude.app/changes` — product momentum signal
115	Curation as Marketing	Curated "field recordings of the year" feature; Quietude Spaces directory
135	Support as Marketing	Surface customer support / Mira reflection moments as content
138	Podcast Tours	Alex on Huberman, the partner-event-business, Tim Ferriss, Rich Roll, Rangan Chatterjee

Q3+:

#	Idea	Quietude note
4	Programmatic SEO	Quietude Guides city pages once Guides program scales
9	Knowledge Base SEO	When help docs scale enough to have problem-solution coverage
14	Side Projects	Eventually a free Quietude-adjacent tool that lives outside the app
15	Engineering as Marketing	HRV interpretation guide; nervous system self-assessment; sound bath finder directory
18	Calculator Marketing	Sleep latency calculator; overstimulation index
20	Microsites	For specific GTM moments (e.g., Mira GA launch)
23	Podcast Advertising	Huberman, Tim Ferriss, Rich Roll, the partner-event-business — host-read most relevant
24	Pre-targeting Ads	Warm audiences via content before direct-response
29	Reddit Ads	r/HSP, r/ADHD, r/somatic — high ICP density, low advertiser saturation
30	Quora Ads	Intent-rich for "why meditation doesn't work" queries
32	YouTube Ads	Pre-roll on Huberman / Lex Fridman / wellness creator videos
33	Cross-Platform Retargeting	Standard layer once paid is firing
35	Community Marketing	Quietude Spaces community (Discord/Circle); host monthly drop-ins
42	Short Form Video	TikTok / Reels — somatic education + eye mask UGC
55	Influencer Whitelisting	Run ads through ambassador / Guide accounts for authenticity
57	Expert Networks	Quietude Guides program IS this — certified hosts who can market
60	Pixel Sharing	Standard once paid is firing
61	Shared Slack Channels	Partner venue Slacks (Aurora, Lumen, Stillwater)
63	Integration Marketing	Apple Health (HRV data), Oura, Whoop — co-marketing
66	Virtual Summits	Quietude participates or hosts
68	Local Meetups	Cities with high ICP density (SF, NYC, LA, Austin)
69	Meetup Sponsorship	Sponsor wellness / biohacking meetups
72	Conference Sponsorship	Industry conferences once budget unlocks
75	Fundraising PR	"Quietude raises $3M" moment when seed closes
78	Product Hunt Launch	Mira public launch moment
79	Early-Access Referrals	App GA early-access list (cross-references to Referral)
81	Early Access Pricing	App GA — early-access tier locked in for first cohort
82	Product Hunt Alternatives	BetaList, Launching Next, AlternativeTo at GA
97	Playlists as Marketing	Quietude curates Spotify playlists for somatic listening
98	Template Marketing	Free "nervous system reset" protocol PDFs
100	Promo Videos	High-quality brand films — Ed Dorsey advises, Matt Mikkelsen field audio
103	Online Courses	Alex's Sound Philosophy course; Sam's somatic methodology course
107	Podcasts	Quietude podcast — interview format with category experts and customers
111	Challenges as Marketing	"21-day nervous system reset" — tasteful, no fitness-bro tone
113	Controversy as Marketing	Meditation-vs-Regulation IS mild controversy — lean in carefully
126	YouTube Reviews	Pitch Quietude to wellness YouTubers — Huberman fan-creator tier
127	YouTube Channel	Sound design behind-the-scenes; Sam session demos
129	Review Sites	App Store reviews actively managed; Trustpilot for eye mask Shopify
130	Live Audio	Twitter Spaces / LinkedIn Audio with Alex on sound + body
134	Certifications	Quietude Guides cert IS this — Q3+ pilot

Q4+ / long-game:

#	Idea	Quietude note
56	Reseller Programs	Corporate wellness platforms (Modern Health, Lyra) as resellers
67	Roadshows	Quietude Experiences IS this — eye mask + listening session pop-ups in 3 cities
71	Conferences	Quietude-hosted "Sound + the Body" — long-game category-defining moment
76	Documentaries	Alex's story is documentary-grade — long game
77	Black Friday Promotions	Holiday eye mask + Premium bundle
80	New Year Promotions	New Year nervous system reset campaign
84	Giveaways	Eye mask giveaway with brand partner (Wellness Mama tier)
85	Vacation Giveaways	Quietude + retreat partner giveaway (quietude.center could be venue)
87	Powered By Marketing	"Sound system by Quietude" badge in B2B venue installs
104	Book Marketing	Sound Philosophy as a book — long-game positioning anchor
105	Annual Reports	"State of the Nervous System" — Quietude's data + industry commentary
106	End of Year Wraps	"Your nervous system year" — Spotify Wrapped equivalent
110	Awards as Marketing	Quietude founds an award for innovative biophilic acoustic design
116	Grants as Marketing	Free Quietude subscriptions for therapists, social workers, first responders
119	OOH Advertising	SF / NYC billboards if Series A budget unlocks
120	Marketing Stunts	Public sound installation could work — brand-fitting
121	Guerrilla Marketing	Sound installation in subway / airport — interesting but requires care
131	International Expansion	Finland HQ + global ICP — Q4 or post-Series A

Skip / off-brand for Quietude:

#	Idea	Why skip
16	Importers as Marketing	No competitor data to import (consumer wellness, not SaaS)
19	Chrome Extensions	Off-platform (mobile-first product)
21	Scanners	No obvious product fit
22	Public APIs	Not core business
27	Twitter Ads	Lower priority unless Alex's X presence grows
34	Click-to-Messenger Ads	Off-brand (no DM-driven sales pattern)
41	X Audience	Depends on Alex's bandwidth — defer unless he wants to
43	Engagement Pods	Off-brand
73	Media Acquisitions	Too capital-intensive at this stage
83	Twitter Giveaways	Off-brand voice
86	Lifetime Deals	Brand-conflict — pressures the "no pressure" voice and damages LTV math
88	Free Migrations	No competitor data to migrate
89	Contract Buyouts	Not relevant for D2C subs
99	Graphic Novel Marketing	Off-brand
112	Reality TV Marketing	Off-brand
117	Product Competitions	Not a developer product
118	Cameo Marketing	Off-brand
122	Humor Marketing	Brand voice is serious; humor would feel off
123	Open Source as Marketing	Proprietary audio library
125	App Marketplaces	Not relevant for native consumer app (no app-of-app pattern)
128	Source Platforms	G2 / Capterra are B2B-focused; D2C uses App Store reviews
132	Price Localization	Q4+ — tied to international expansion
136	Developer Relations	Not a dev product

12.2 Activation ideas (7 mapped)

#	Idea	Status	Quietude note
124	App Store Optimization	Now	Q1 priority — listing rewrite in voice (also Acquisition)
90	One-Click Registration	Now	OAuth (Apple, Google) for app signup — standard activation lift
51	Onboarding Emails	Q2	Flow 2 — held until UI stable post-onboarding-rebuild
96	Onboarding Optimization	Q1-Q2	The 3-variant test IS this — primary activation work
47	Founder Welcome Email	Q2	Personal welcome from Alex or Sam early in Flow 2
48	Dynamic Email Capture	Q2	Smart capture on `quietude.app` — exit intent + scroll depth
95	Concierge Setup	Q3+	High-touch onboarding for B2B venue clients + high-value subscribers

12.3 Retention ideas (8 mapped)

#	Idea	Status	Quietude note
46	Reactivation Emails	Now	Flow 4 ships in weeks 3–4 — exactly this
52	Win-back Emails	Q1 (week 11-12)	Standalone campaign on top of Flow 4
53	Trial Reactivation	Q2	Expired-trial recovery campaign once paywall is firing
45	Mistake Email Marketing	Q2	When something genuinely goes wrong, send "oops" — drives engagement
50	Inbox Placement	Q1	Subdomain silo strategy (`mail.quietude.app` / `commerce.quietude.app`) addresses this
91	In-App Upsells	Q2	Premium upsell points within app (also Revenue)
94	Offboarding Flows	Q2	Optimize cancellation flow to retain or learn — feeds churn intel
135	Support as Marketing	Q2	Customer support stories surface as content (also Acquisition)

12.4 Referral ideas (5 mapped)

#	Idea	Status	Quietude note
62	Affiliate Program	Now	Ambassador program v1 is exactly this — launched with the 5 inbound
137	Two-Sided Referrals	Q2	Reward both referrer and referred — share-after-shift moment + gifting flow
92	Newsletter Referrals	Q3	If we launch a newsletter, Sparkloop-style referral mechanic
93	Viral Loops	Q3	Built-in share mechanics post-Mira reflection
79	Early-Access Referrals	Q3	App GA early-access list referrals (cross-references to Acquisition)

12.5 Revenue ideas (3 mapped — most ideas serve top-of-funnel)

#	Idea	Status	Quietude note
91	In-App Upsells	Q2	Premium upgrade prompts; eye mask cross-sell from app (also Retention)
132	Price Localization	Q4+	Adjust pricing for local purchasing power once international
86	Lifetime Deals	Skip	Brand-conflict — see Acquisition skip list

12.6 Cross-cutting / brand foundation ideas

#	Idea	Status	Quietude note
139	Customer Language	Now	Mira reflection responses + 7 Ds language = the source-of-truth for customer language across all copy
114	Moneyball Marketing	Ongoing	Find undervalued channels at every stage — methodology, not a single tactic

Idea-bank summary

88 ideas applicable to Acquisition (the dominant stage at Quietude's current stage — makes sense, Quietude's product converts well; the bottleneck is the top of funnel)
7 ideas to Activation, 8 to Retention (smaller because these stages are about depth, not breadth — execute the right few well rather than running a wide tactic menu)
5 ideas to Referral (program-driven, not tactic-driven)
3 ideas to Revenue (most revenue work is pricing strategy, not tactical tricks)
2 cross-cutting
23 ideas skipped for brand / business-model fit — Quietude's category positioning constrains what's available

What this proves: the plan is roughly 30% of the available tactical surface area, not 100%. That's appropriate at this stage and budget. As capacity unlocks across Q2 → Q3 → Series A, the cross-reference becomes the inventory we pull from to scale activity without losing strategic coherence.

13. Measurement, RACI, open decisions, appendix

Measurement — the metrics that matter

North star (proposed): Blended-LTV-to-blended-CAC ratio per acquired user, where:

Blended LTV combines app subscription revenue + hardware revenue (eye mask + speakers) + any cross-sells, per cohort
Blended CAC combines paid spend + content production cost + ambassador commissions + lifecycle tool spend, per cohort

This captures the business model: the eye mask wedge isn't free if it costs $X to make, and the app sub isn't expensive to acquire if a Bryan-Johnson-style PR moment is paying for itself.

If a single metric is preferred for team-level focus, fall back to: monthly new D2C subscribers from non-paid channels. This isolates the compound channels the long-game strategy depends on.

Leading indicators by AARRR stage:

Stage	Leading indicators
Acquisition	Organic visits/mo (overall + per pillar), App Store visit-to-install rate, Alex's LinkedIn engagement → email subscribers, event-to-app conversion rate, ambassador-attributed visits
Activation	Day 1 / Day 7 / Day 35 → paid conversion, onboarding session-completion rate, first session Mira reflection completion
Retention	30 / 60 / 90-day retention, monthly churn, Flow 4 reactivation rate, hardware → app activation rate
Referral	Ambassador-attributed new subs (Dub), share-after-shift rate, Guides pilot referrals (when live)
Revenue	Blended MRR, ARPU, annual plan adoption %, LTV by cohort, eye mask attach rate

Review cadence:

Weekly: fCMO ↔ Alex 30-min sync. AARRR scoreboard + this week's ships.
Monthly: Full metrics review (extended sync, Sam included). Compare against quarterly KPI targets.
Quarterly: Plan recalibration. What's working, what's not, what funding-stage moves we're triggering.

RACI

Domain	Responsible	Accountable	Consulted	Informed
Strategic plan (this doc)	Casey	Alex	Sam, Emily	Team
Brand voice	Alex + Sam	Alex + Sam	Casey	Team
App + onboarding implementation	Devon	Alex	Casey	Team
Lifecycle flows (Customer.io)	Casey	Alex	Sam (copy QA)	Team
SEO content	Casey	Casey	Sam, Alex	Team
App Store copy	Casey	Alex	Sam	Team
Alex's LinkedIn cadence	Alex	Alex	Casey (orchestration)	Team
Events	Alex + Sam	Alex	Casey (instrumentation only)	Team
Ambassador program	Casey	Casey	Alex	Team
B2B sales	Alex	Alex	Casey (case studies)	Team
Pricing	Alex	Alex	Casey	Sam
Investor narrative	Alex	Alex	Casey, Sam	Team
Quietude Guides program (Q3+)	TBD (likely future hire)	Alex + Sam	Casey	Team
Future marketing hire (Q3)	Casey	Alex	Sam	Team

Open decisions blocking the plan

Most blocking, ranked by impact:

Canonical domain. SEO data + this plan recommend quietude.app. Needs exec sign-off + 301 execution plan. Blocks: domain consolidation, SEO foundation, email sender migration.
Retention metric definition. Reconcile 38% 12-month retention claim vs. 29% monthly App Store churn. Blocks: clean dashboards, investor narrative coherence, lifecycle test reads.
Mira post-session reflection scope. Does Mira currently support this, or is it new build? Blocks: Onboarding Variants 1 and 2 (which depend on Mira reflection moment), retention compound moves.
App UI stability timeline. When does the headphone-gate-removal + onboarding-rebuild allow Flow 2 to ship without rework risk? Blocks: Flow 2, full lifecycle, paid acquisition timing.
GA launch timeline. When does the throttled beta become GA? Blocks: paid acquisition scale, Q3 GTM planning.
Pricing structure ground truth. What's actually charged today? Blocks: pricing audit conclusions, annual-plan default test, blended LTV math.
First marketing hire scope. Lifecycle + content owner, or something else? When does the JD get written? Blocks: Q3 capacity plan, succession of fCMO operational work.
Ambassador commission structure. $/sub, rev-share, hybrid? Blocks: ambassador program launch, attribution dashboards.

Appendix — deep-dive links

Published to the team via Quietude-Inc/quietude-context GitHub repo:

marketing/seo/plan.md — Full 90-day SEO + keyword research plan
marketing/seo/keyword-shortlist.md — Tier 1 keyword shortlist
marketing/seo/raw/ — Ahrefs + DataForSEO API pulls
marketing/onboarding-recommendation.md — Three-variant onboarding test plan

Founder-authored strategic context (in Quietude's internal knowledge base):

Seed deck — Investor narrative
Sound Philosophy — Alex's technical/philosophical working doc
Marketing OS — Brand voice, content rhythm, visual system
ICP doc — D2C audience profile
Meditation-vs-Regulation note (2026-05-19) — Central content pillar
Kickoff call transcript (2026-05-18) — Decisions + open questions
App Store copy snapshot + voice-gap analysis
App Store metrics snapshot (2026-05-16)
Customer.io lifecycle flows inventory

Marketing Plan v1. Prepared by Casey Reed (fCMO), 2026-05-27. For team review and discussion.

Requirements and compatibility

Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta

“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.

Security

What our scanner noticed· Low risk

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Attribution and licence

Created by

Corey Haines

Publisher

Corey Haines (Community)

Source

coreyhaines31/marketingskills · skills/marketing-plan · commit 96798cf

Licence

MIT License (redistribution allowed)

LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE)
ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)

Synced

2026-11-08

AutoGineer is not affiliated with or endorsed by Corey Haines.

Download ZIP

The ZIP holds the skill’s files, its licence files and an ATTRIBUTION.md. Download marketing-plan.zip

From the author

AutoGineer summary

What it does

When to use it

Advantages

Usage examples

Install

Documentation by Corey Haines

Marketing Plan

When to use

How this skill is invoked

The three phases

Phase 1 — INIT (research + intake)

Phase 2 — REVIEW (walk through each of 13 sections interactively)

Phase 3 — FINALIZE (compile + verify + publish)

The 13-section plan structure

The AARRR framing

Marketing as investing — the north-star framing

The market-quality gate — problem size × frequency

The current-state rubric

Cross-references — skills this plan integrates with

The marketing operations stack

Funding-stage capability unlocks

Setting the budget scientifically

Growth patterns — the real shape of SaaS growth

Team and agency model

What every plan must customize

Common client-type variations

Quality bar

Output format

File layout per plan

Related skills

Task-specific questions (used during INIT)

How exhaustive should the plan be?

A note on tone

Files

references/example-quietude.md

Example — Quietude Marketing Plan v1

Quietude — Marketing Plan v1

1. Executive summary

2. Strategic frame

What Quietude is, in one sentence

The category we're claiming (and defending)

Who we're for (D2C ICP, distilled)

The business model logic (per seed deck)

Brand voice (the non-negotiable)

3. Current state

Team composition (marketing surface area)

Marketing budget (current)

What's already done (acknowledge, then build on)

What's in-flight (drafted but not shipped)

What's stuck (and needs to unstick this quarter)

Audit rubric snapshot (17-section)

4. Acquisition

Current state

The plan

90-day acquisition moves

12-month acquisition outlook

Skills + tools

5. Activation

Current state

The plan

90-day activation moves

12-month activation outlook

Skills + tools

6. Retention

Current state

The plan

90-day retention moves

12-month retention outlook

Skills + tools

7. Referral

Current state

The plan

90-day referral moves

12-month referral outlook

Skills + tools

8. Revenue

Current state

The plan